South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1887-10-14
JUST IN TIME,
"Elma Griffin, died April L. 1910, aged 10
years, months and q daysn

eS'i' VI 'iitu iltIlI Id, 1919. aged 10
years, months and days.
The words were engraved upon sill
yer plate, but there was no coffin under
them. Mrs. Purroy, an elderly lady,
visiting friends living on Clinton ave
nue., Almeda, but whose home is in
Brooklyn, N. Y, looked with an air of
mingled pride and reverence upon the
carving, for her name was once Elmo
Griffin, and the coffin was made to hold
her remains.
ION my nineteenth birthday" she
said, my mother invited a number of
acquaintance to our house TO celebrate
the day. We lived some distance out
side of Williamsburg, as it was then,
and the ground was a little soft and
boggy. One of my friends remembered
this rs she was about to start home with
her brother, and she lnughingly con-
graduated me on being housed already
and having no occasion to brave the
swamp. was wild young girl in
those days, and | declared at once that
L would go with them and return alone.
Everybody present tried to dissuade me
except the girls brother. We started.
and when l reached my friends house
was conscious that my feet were quite
wet, and that n disagreeable chill had
crept over me, but / declined an invita-
ton to go in, and went away at once.
oi course Rob-the brother, | mean
came with me, and somehow forgot
the cold and damp rs walked home.
81 think we must have talk ed for n
long time az we stood on my unclc's
doorstep, for suddenly Rob---my escort.
! mean---said: Elma, your face is very
pale. Have kept you standing here
too longP He talked to me for ten min
utes after that, and then wished me good
night and left me. rang the bell, and
when my mother opened the door told
her what | might have known an hour
sooner, If ! had given it thought, that
was really i'll. She hurried me to bed
Immediately, and when she cam, to call
me the following morning she looked
very anxious BY noon | was delirious.
but | could hear the doctor tell nv
mother ! had typhoid fever, and that he
could not hold out much hope for my
recovery. knew that my mother was
weeping, but | was always a selfish girl.
and could only cry out: Robert, Rob
ertl Where is Robertl and they told
me, hardly thinking that heard them.
that Robert had been suddenly called
upon to start for California early that
morning, and had not even heard of nv
illness. He sent letter to me. how.
over but did rot sec it until MANY
weeks later.
Il grew rapidly worse, and gradually
the knowledge Of all outward thino.
passed from me. fancy thtt 1 had n
certain consciousness, but not of mat
tiers around me. | was in another state
( of being, in which the person acting and
speaking always strangely speaking
vas myself, and yet not myself. Then
came an utter blank, from which, awokt
/ dter nearly three weeks Of oblivion. ia
I sec my mother and the doctor standing
! Wy my bedside. The doctor said tho
crisis was past and should probably re-
cover, but did not feel any interest in
what no was talk ing about.
''The quiet days Of convalescenco fol
lowed, and the doctor, seeing that wa.
very weak, regarded me seriously, and
warned my mother that a relapse should
be carefully guarded against. used AT
that time, too, 90 fall into curious phvsi
cal conditions that I suppose wcrC
frances, in which I knew all that wa,
! going on around me, but from which
4 did not seem 10 care to arouse myself by
moving or speaking. These periods
lasted longer and longer but they wcr,
not observed ard ar H,,y were rather
/ pleasant thsn othcrviss ad Bothino
I about them
( on morning awoke from What
seemed 90 be natrrai setp, aud la,
with my eyes closed listening to sound.
that could not ut first interpret; hui
slowly the knowledge came TO me that
my mother was sobbing beside my bed
tried 10 ask her why she was growing